Description

Customers at a quack medicine stall in Bolton’s open market, Thursday 23rd September 1937. Before the NHS was established working people in Britain would rely on such stalls and shops as visiting a doctor was expensive.

Humphrey Spender was obviously particularly interested in the stall as he took a sequence of eight photographs of it and also wrote an observation which is in the Mass Observation Archive. This is one of only four written observations that we know Spender produced. In it he describes ‘a stoutish woman dressed as a nurse’ who is selling coloured liquids in bottles to enthusiastic customers, and using a stethoscope and pulsometer to diagnose their ailments. He also gives the date of the observation.

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2 Responses

The rather stern looking lady wearing the beret, just left of centre, is my Grandmother, Margaret Elizabeth Sanders (formerly Swan)dob 20/03/1886, Toxteth Liverpool. The girl with the wavy hair, two to the right, is my mother Sylvia Elizabeth Sanders, aged 16, dob 06/05/1921, from Bolton. You may already know this as I told the archivist five years ago.

No we didn’t have this identification recorded and we are really happy to put names to faces in these photos. We designed the website for comments so we could finally make sure all the information can be kept in one place! Would it be possible for you to provide a photo of your aunt and mother so we can formally identify them? If you get in touch with Ian at the Museum ian.trumble@bolton.gov.uk then he can arrange this with you. Thanks